eBay Question for the Experts...

I’m seeing more and more re-listings of BAD planes and other tools that nobody bids on. These items get re-listed, with a new starting price, (or B-I-N) that is even higher than the last time it was listed!

Yeah, there’s 3 or 4 eBayers who re-run their entire overpriced inventory over and over. Us plane shoppers know who they are, but they aren’t the ones jacking up their price even further whenever they relist. It’s these onesy-twosy people with utter junk re-listing for a progressively higher price.

Is there a new strategy for selling in eBay that I’m unaware of? Cripes, if was selling these days, I’d be re-listing unsold merch for a lower starting price, not higher!! Who can tell me why this is happening?

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

Thanks, Richard.
Any eBay experts out there? I ask because the three or four individuals I see doing this have hundreds of sales, and generally 100% feedback or close to it. There has to be some secret strategy or formula…I just can’t figure out what it is. Myself, I have about 500 sales, and 700 purchases, so I’m not exactly new to this myself. But this practice defies logic, and is done by reputable sellers, so I’m asking.

Start your own thread if you want to vent your spleen.

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

I used to sell quite a bit on eBay. That strategy will not get them any more cash. It’s pretty simple. When you go shopping and you see a nice plane for a good price and then some crap, you are going to buy the nicer plane for less. They may sell one every once in a while to someone special, but for the most part they will just sit there.

OK, for the serious answer, I think it’s a perceived value. Put a fur coat in a store window for $50 and it doesn’t attract any interest because it is perceived to be deficient in some way. (Why so cheap? What’s wrong with it?) Mark that same fur coat up to $300 and it get’s snapped up.

There are some sellers on eBay who have made it an art form, overprice an item and the ignorant masses buy from them. I know there’s term for it, but it eludes me.

As for eBay expert status, I have had a couple of stores on eBay over the years, including a profitable marine electronics business that outgrew eBay and became a stand alone web business. I never subscribed to the “overprice it and they will come” philosophy of sales.

I may or may not be correct on this. It used to be when I was selling tools on ebay many years ago, if It didn’t sell you didn’t owe ebay anything. That changed. It changed so that if your posted something for sale and it did not sell you still owe a certain amount to ebay.

I wonder. Could it be that the new higher price may be amount derived from the calculation of = Original asking price + amount paid to ebay when the original posting did not sell.

Just an assumption on my part. I have not sold or purchased on ebay for many years so just a guess.

It’s an interesting observation that I’ve made a few times as well… I’ve been watching the same item for about 2 months now. When I first say it, the starting price was $75, and the BIN was $100. It no bids, got relisted at $85/$105. Same thing, relisted again at $100/$125, and again at $75/$100. It was interesting.

Thanks, Mos! perhaps it’s a marketing ploy, perhaps something in eBay’s listing software, possibly something to trap a potential buyer as a never-before listed item? I might write to a couple of these culprits, and see if they’re willing to share their reason with me. Perhaps they simply want to snag a buyer when they finally relist an item down at the price as originally listed!

-- Einstein: "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift." I'm Poopiekat!!

Once upon a time you could visit the eBay sellers forums and see all sorts of valid criticisms about eBay’s fee structure and outright heavy handedness. Those posts were purged by eBay long ago and are no longer tolerated.

Note the rise of eBid and ETSY. They are there as a direct result of disgruntled eBay sellers fleeing to greener pastures. And Craigslist owes a large part of it’s success to small one off sellers leaving eBay behind for less hassle and no fees.

I have no idea where sellers congregate on the web to discuss feebay and selling strategies and frankly stopped caring. I stopped selling there a few years ago and sleep better at night.

-- "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain

I’m not an expert ,not even a seller on ebay but get just as frustrated when I see items priced “not to sell” I don’t get it either,just recently I was looking for a set of wood scrapers,LV sells them for under $15 ,to my surprise I saw a few sellers on ebay selling them for $30 plus $60 for shipping,I went on ebay discussion forum and asked how is this even allowed,well according to the experts ,it is for the sellers “exposure” specially when they sell internationally,they need to have a few listings to qualify them,also most potential buyers look at the “seller’s other items for sale” so they may get exposure to what they sell that way.

I’m no expert, but I agree with Richard’s comments about perceived value. It seems to be a strategy employed by some sellers that if they call an old POS plane a “rare antique”, and price it as such, some rube out there will just possibly buy it.

I guess you could call me something of an expert, since I’ve been selling on eBay basically full time for about 7 years. What you described is pretty common among less experienced sellers or sellers unfamiliar with the type of item they’re selling (which describes the majority of eBay sellers, BTW). Personally, I never use the Buy It Now option with auctions at all. If I’m selling by auction I decide the lowest I’d be willing to take for it, start it and let it go where it will.

I’ve found that there are some types of items that sell better as Buy It Now and some things buyers prefer to bid on, so just keep it separate. For instance, most people wouldn’t want to wait a week to learn whether they bought a pack of sandpaper or not. They want to just buy it and get on with their lives. Perhaps a rare Stanley plane might be something a lot of people would like a shot at, though, I’d probably set it as an auction.

It’s because buyers are as unpredictable as the sellers. I’ve told this story before, but its explains what your talking about and its one of the reason I don’t like selling on ebay. I had a nice Millers Falls #10 I restored. At the time I figured it was worth between $85-$100. I listed it with a starting bid of $55. I never got a bid. I was so afraid someone was going to finally bid and get it for $55. After the bid expired without a bidder, for some reason I decided to relist it with a BIN for $95. It sold within the first day of relisting it.

I’ve come to the realization that ebay is a crap shot. I’m not saying that an experienced selling can’t be successful. There are lots of success stories here, but then, I’ve known a few people who actually made money gambling.

I’m not an ebay expert but I have been in retail my entire life. Here’s a story that may help. My wife and I owned an art gallery, on the wall hung a picture priced at $125 for over a year. We raised the price to $250 and sold it for $175 a week later. Makes no realistic sense, I know, but pricing has no reality. It’s perceived value.